Wall display device

ABSTRACT

A hanger device for mounting and displaying or storing on a wall articles such as pictures, record albums, tape cartridges, merchandise and other decorative or functional items. The device comprises an elongate strip of flexible, apertured hanger material which can be rolled or folded for packaging purposes and later unrolled or unfolded by the user and hung vertically on a wall. Hooks are provided for fastening the articles to the hanger material at different vertical locations, each hook being adaptable to be inserted into an aperture of the flexible material and having a mounting plate coated with a pressure sensitive adhesive adaptable for mounting each hook to the back of an article to be displayed. Multiple hanger strips hung in side-by-side relation, each supporting a vertical array of articles, are utilized to provide a full wall display.

United States Patent. [1 1 i Hine et al.

[ Dec. 10, 1974 WALL DISPLAY DEVICE [22] Filed: May 21, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 361,865

[52] US. Cl 211/104, 24/204, 40/124.4,

248/489 [51] Int. Cl A47g 1/16 [58] Field of Search 211/104, 113, 118;

248/477, 496, 467, 489, DIG. 3; 40/124.4, 20 R; 24/204 Primary ExaminerMarion Parsons, Jr. Assistant Examiner-Robert W. Gibson, Jr. Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Chernoff & Vilhauer [5 7] ABSTRACT A hanger device for mounting and displaying or storing on a wall articles such as pictures, record albums, tape cartridges, merchandise and other decorative or functional items. The device comprises an elongate strip of flexible, apertured hanger material which can be rolled or folded for packaging purposes and later unrolled or unfolded by the user and hung vertically on a wall. Hooks are provided for fastening the articles to the hanger material at different vertical locations, each hook being adaptable to be inserted into an aperture of the flexible material and having a mounting plate coated with a pressure sensitive adhesive adaptable for mounting each hook to the back of an article to be displayed. Multiple hanger strips hung .in side-by-side relation, each supporting a vertical array of articles, are utilized to provide a full wall display.

5 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures.

PATENTEQ SEC I 0|974 FIG. 3

WALL DISPLAY DEVICE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a unique hanger device for displaying or storing on walls decorative or functional articles such as pictures, phonograph record albums and their covers, tape cartridges, packaged merchandise and the like. More particularly the hanger device is of the type adaptable to be conveniently packaged for sale to consumers and adaptable for mounting multiple articles one above the other on a wall.

In the past many different types of hanger assemblies have been devised for displaying or storing items on walls. Some of these hanger systems, particularly those designed to support decorative or functional articles having some weight, utilize relatively rigid apertured hanger materials such as the expanded metal panel uti-' lized in Augenfeld U.S. Pat. No. 2,538,958or the rigid hanger strips shown in Deliso U.S. Pat. No. 3,202,292. Because of the lack of any substantial flexibility of such hanger materials, they are not particularly adaptable for rolling or folding into compact packages convenient for sale as ordinary consumer items in stores and shops. On the other hand systems such as that shown in Stanos U.S. Pat. No. 3,327,419, which utilize flexible fabric hanger materials, are not ordinarily adaptable for supporting a plurality of articles having any appreciable weight.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION The present invention is directed to a hanger device which comprises an elongate strip of flexible apertured material, such as a mesh or chain, having considerable tensile strength so as to support multiple objects of some weight and yet having sufficient flexibility that the hanger material may be rolled or-folded for packaging purposes without permanent deformation or damage and later extended by the user for wall hanging purposes. The hanger material considered to be especially adaptable for such purposes is a flexible plastic composition mesh material, popularly known as gutter guard, which has considerable tensile strength and attractive decorative characteristics and which is adaptable to be rolled tightly and later unrolled and laid flat with no permanent creases, bends or breaks. The hanger device also includes a hook having a mounting plate with adhesive for permitting easy attachment of the hook to the article to be displayed, such hook being adaptable for insertion into the apertured material at any desired vertical location. Preferably a group of such hooks is provided for each strip of apertured material so as to enable the mounting of several articles at different locations on the strip. A number of such strips may be hung side-by-side on a wall to mount an attractive display covering the entire wall surface if desired.

The hanger device is particularly useful for displaying record album covers on party room walls, children's bedrooms etc., and may also thereby serve as a storage means for the phonograph records inside the album covers. Moreover the device is useful for arranging picture displays or for displaying and storing merchandise such as tape cartridges or other consumer items in stores and shops. In each case an adhesive hook is attached to the back of each article, and a plurality of the articles are attached to each strip of hanger material in different vertical locations as desired.

Accordingly it is a primary objective of the present invention to provide an attractive wall hanger device, for displaying or storing decorative or functional articles, comprising an elongate strip of apertured material having sufficient flexibility to be easily rolled or folded into a compact configuration with no permanent deformation or damage to the material and which nevertheless has considerable tensile strength when extended, such hanger device including adhesive hook means for fastening multiple articles of some appreciable weight at various locations along the material strip. The foregoing and other objectives, features and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of the hanger device illustrating its relation to an article to be displayed.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary wall display featuring several of the hanger devices of the present invention in side-by-side relation.

FIG. 3 shows a length of chain used as the hanger material in an alternative embodiment of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The hanger device, designated generally as 10 in FIG. 1, comprises an elongate strip of apertured material 12 in combination with a hook l4, adaptable for insertion through any one of such apertures, having a mounting plate 16 for attaching the hook -to an article 18 to be displayed on a wall. The apertured hanger material 12 comprises an elongate strip of flexible mesh formed from a relatively hard plastic or rubber composition material comprising crossed lattice elongate elements each having an average diameter of .between approximately one thirty-second inch and one-sixteenth inch. The apertures are of. uniform size approximately onefourth to one-half inch wide. A suitable mesh material having such characteristics is presently produced for the Dupont (E.I.) Nemours Company of Wilmington, Del. under the tradename Vexar Gutter Guard" for use as a screen for protecting gutters from accumulations of leaves, twigs etc. Such mesh material is quite decorative in design, has considerable toughness and strength for resisting tensionand has apertures which are not easily deformed when stress is applied to them. Despite its toughness, however, the material is quite flexible and, when cut into strips such as 12 approximately two or three inches wide, may be rolled easily into a compact configuration suitable for convenient packaging. In addition the material can later be unrolled and extended to its full length with no trace of permanent creases, bends or breaks and with no tendency of the material to curl and reassume its previous rolled configuration. Other types of meshes, for example those formed of light wire or plastic and wire composition, might also be suitable as a hanger material provided that they possess the foregoing characteristics. The strip of apertured material 12 need not necessarily constitute a lattice configuration, but should in any case have a large number of apertures formed along its length to permit fastening of articles at various vertical locations. I

The top of each strip 12 is preferably wrapped around the front and rear sides of a block of wood molding such as 20, having the same width as the strip, and is attached to the back thereof by a pair of staples 22. The block should have a pair of holes 24 predrilled therein for accepting screws such as 26 for fastening the strip 12 to the wall. Alternatively the holes 24 might merely represent pilot holes for drilling larger apertures to accomodate screws or Molly hardware.

An alternative type of hanger material, useable in place of the strip 12, might constitute simply a plastic or metal chain such as 28 (FIG. 3) containing apertures 30 all facing in the same direction and adaptable for accepting the insertion of hooks such as 14. Such chain configuration should also have considerable resistance to tension and should be easily foldable into a compact configuration for packaging.

The hook 14 is of a size readilyinsertable through any of the apertures in the strip of hanger material 12 and preferably includes a mounting plate 16 having a sponge-backed pressure sensitive adhesive adaptable for easy attachment to the back of a display article such as 18. The display article 18 might simply comprise a phonograph record album cover (with the record inside), or a picture, mirror, or other artistic or decorative item. Alternatively the article 18 might comprise some functional consumer item mounted for wall display in a store or shop. One type of hook assembly which has been found especially suitable for use in the hanger device is .a plastic hook with pressure sensitive adhesive presently sold under the name Magic Mounts-Type 309."

It is contemplated that the hanger device will be offered for sale in kit form, with two or more strips of apertured hanger material per kit and six hooks provided for each strip. The strip material will be tightly rolled for convenience in packaging, with the attached block 20 already fastened thereto, requiring the user merely to unroll and extend the strip into a flat configuration and attach it to a wall as shown in FIG. 2. Thereafter the hooks 14 can be attached to the articles 18 and the hooks inserted into the apertured material at any desired locations. Any number of articles, depending upon their size, can be hung one beneath the other on a single strip 12. Moreover, the utilization of multiple strips in side-by-side relation as shown in FIG. 2 provides the opportunity to produce an entire wall display with articles arranged in virtually any configuration desired.

The terms and expressions which have been 'employed in the foregoing abstract and specification are used therein as terms of description and not of limitation and there is no intention, in the use of such terms and expressions, of excluding equivalents of the features shown and described or portions thereof, it being recognized that the scope of the invention is defined and limited only by the claims which follow.

What is claimed is:

1. A hanger device for mounting and displaying multiple articles of appreciable weight such as phonograph record albums, mirrors, pictures and the like on a wall comprising, in combination, an elongate strip of latticed hanger material having front and rear surfaces and an array of uniformly sized, regularly arranged apertures formed therein along its length extending through said material between said front and rear surfaces, said material being sufficiently resistant to tension to support, without deformation of said apertures, a plurality of said articles when said articles are mounted thereon, and being sufficiently flexible to enable said material to be rolled or folded into a compact configuration for packaging purposes and thereafter extended into a flat elongate configuration with no permanent deformity therein and no tendency thereofv to reassume said compact configurations, a hook adaptable for insertion through said apertures, said hook including mounting means for attaching said hook to one of said articles to be displayed on said wall, and mounting means attached to one end of said strip of hanger material for fastening said strip to a wall.

2. The hanger device of claim 1 wherein said hanger material comprises a lattice of hard plastic composition elongate, said elements having an average diameter of between approximately one thirty-second inch and one-sixteenth inch.

3. The hanger device of claim 1 wherein said mounting means comprises a mounting block attached to one end of said strip of hanger material, said strip being wrapped around the front and rear sides of said block, and means for fastening said strip to the rear side of said block.

4. The hanger device of claim 1 including a plurality of said hooks adaptable to be inserted into said apertures of said elongate strip of hanger material at various locations along the length thereof, so as to permit the mounting of a plurality of said .articles one above the other on said strip of hanger material.

5. The hanger device of claim 1 wherein said hook includes a mounting plate having pressure sensitive adhesive means for attaching said hook to said display article. 

1. A hanger device for mounting and displaying multiple articles of appreciable weight such as phonograph record albums, mirrors, pictures and the like on a wall comprising, in combination, an elongate strip of latticed hanger material having front and rear surfaces and an array of uniformly sized, regularly arranged apertures formed therein along its length extending through said material between said front and rear surfaces, said material being sufficiently resistant to tension to support, without deformation of said apertures, a plurality of said articles when said articles are mounted thereon, and being sufficiently flexible to enable said material to be rolled or folded into a compact configuration for packaging purposes and thereafter extended into a flat elongate configuration with no permanent deformity therein and no tendency thereof to reassume said compact configurations, a hook adaptable for insertion through said apertures, said hook including mounting means for attaching said hook to one of said articles to be displayed on said wall, and mounting means attached to one end of said strip of hanger material for fastening said strip to a wall.
 2. The hanger device of claim 1 wherein said hanger material comprises a lattice of hard plastic composition elongate, said elemts having an average diameter of between approximately one thirty-second inch and one-sixteenth inch.
 3. The hanger device of claim 1 wherein said mounting means comprises a mounting block attached to one end of said strip of hanger material, said strip being wrapped around the front and rear sides of said block, and means for fastening said strip to the rear side of said block.
 4. The hanger device of claim 1 including a plurality of said hooks adaptable to be inserted into said apertures of said elongate strip of hanger material at various locations along the length thereof, so as to permit the mounting of a plurality of said articles one above the other on said strip of hanger material.
 5. The hanger device of claim 1 wherein said hook includes a mounting plate having pressure sensitive adhesive means for attaching said hook to said display article. 